Paper short abstract:

Digitalisation is reshaping the sociocultural, ecological and economic relationships in and with the agricultural sectors. Drawing on research within a larger interdisciplinary project, we reflect on the opportunities and challenges of a digital transformation of New Zealand’s bioeconomy, focusing on the vision to move from volume to value.

Paper long abstract:

Digital technologies such as Big Data are reshaping large parts of the global agri-food system, particularly in highly industrialised countries. For some, the sector’s digital transformation promises increased productivity, sustainability and new opportunities for rural agricultural communities. Others emphasise the challenges for achieving those goals by noting the potential sociocultural, ecological and economic disruptions associated with the transition toward ‘Farming 4.0’. Like other sectors, the profound changes of the fourth industrial revolution in agriculture are likely to prompt diverse hopes, fears and envisioned futures. In New Zealand, one recurring theme in policy and industry visions is to move from ‘volume to value’, inter alia by harnessing the potential of digital innovation. Such sociotechnical imaginaries do, Jasanoff (2015: 29) notes, “operate as both glue and solvent, able … to preserve continuity across the sharpest ruptures of innovation or, in reverse, to upend firm worlds and make them anew”.

In this paper, we unpack some of the visions and on-the-ground changes associated with the digital transformation of New Zealand’s bioeconomy. We focus on how digitalisation affects understandings of value across networks of suppliers, distributers and consumers— along the so-called value chain—by drawing on qualitative research that includes interviews with key actors and selected document analysis. New digital technologies, like those directly connecting consumers and producers, reshape agricultural relationships, with trust and transparency becoming increasingly valued in addition to the products themselves. We critically reflect on whether such technological changes are sufficient to systematically realise New Zealand’s ‘volume to value’ agricultural future.